The New Left in Japan refers to a diverse array of 1960s Japanese leftist movements that, like their counterparts in the Western New Left, adopted a more radical political stance compared to the established "Old Left," which in the case of Japan was emblematized by the Japanese Communist Party and Japan Socialist Party. After emerging in the lead-up to the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the movement grew and diversified before climaxing with the Zenkyōtō movement which barricaded dozens of Japanese universities in 1968–1969. Much like its counterparts in the West, in the 1970s, the Japanese New Left became known for violent internal splits and terrorism, which caused the movement's influence to wane.

The Mountain Village Operation Units were underground paramilitary units organized by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) in the early 1950s for the purpose of carrying out Maoist-inspired guerrilla operations against the Japanese government and the Allied Occupation of Japan. The units were formed under the guidance of the Interim Central Directorate of the JCP, an informal group created by the party’s majority Shokanha faction, and sought to foment a nationwide communist revolution in emulating Mao Zedong's strategy of forming a base of operations in rural villages, but the operations achieved no successes and proved a disaster for the party's political prospects going forward.